Games Discussion Thread

[stoper]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

So im 18 hours into Nier and am conflicted on a few minor gameplay points but all together im loving it so far, enyone elce into it?

Finished Route C today. Pretty solid game.
I'm not sure I completely understood what is happening with the story, but that's the case with most Japanese games I've played.
The gameplay is fun. Though after reaching lvl. 40 the difficulty drops significantly (even on Hard), somehow the enemies don't scale properly.

 

[Caulder]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Eh. I still don;t know how the weapon balance stacks up in higher difficulties, but there are easy ways to counter ammo shortages. Either using a Remnant weapon, which works on overheat rather than ammo, or by installing a Vintage Heat Sink augment into a gun when you craft it, which accomplishes the same thing. As a note, Overheat works differently in Andromeda than it did for the few Overheat guns in ME3, in that now, when a gun fully overheats, it doesn't require an animation that can be interrupted to cool back down, making them actually more effective than regular guns, as normally, dodging causes your reload animation to be interrupted for a normal ammo gun.

 

[super_slicer]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Finished Route C today. Pretty solid game.
I'm not sure I completely understood what is happening with the story, but that's the case with most Japanese games I've played.
The gameplay is fun. Though after reaching lvl. 40 the difficulty drops significantly (even on Hard), somehow the enemies don't scale properly.

It's Nier, you're not supposed to know what's going on. lolz. I still have no fuckin clue about the first. Kill stuff=you win.

Eh. I still don;t know how the weapon balance stacks up in higher difficulties, but there are easy ways to counter ammo shortages. Either using a Remnant weapon, which works on overheat rather than ammo, or by installing a Vintage Heat Sink augment into a gun when you craft it, which accomplishes the same thing. As a note, Overheat works differently in Andromeda than it did for the few Overheat guns in ME3, in that now, when a gun fully overheats, it doesn't require an animation that can be interrupted to cool back down, making them actually more effective than regular guns, as normally, dodging causes your reload animation to be interrupted for a normal ammo gun.

See that was my biggest gripe with ME 2 and 3, weapon selection became 1 of a dozen instead of hundreds of possibilities. And ammo shortages.

 

[Caulder]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Well, Andromeda does have a shortage of weapons, if only because the only blueprints you can research are the highest-end ones, and everything else you have to find a copy of before it begins to put the blueprints into the development crafting menu. But the amount you can customize the guns is pretty insane if you research some augments. Also, as a tip, Augments aren't lost forever if you build a gun with them in it. You can deconstruct a crafted weapon for 50% of the raw materials used to make it, and it also returns all Augments you used to make it. So if you have the resources and the time, you can experiment. Just...Don;t put the Beam emitter augment on a semi-auto weapon. It ruins the damage output.

 

[XSI]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Killing Floor 2

Free weekend and discount

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I've not tried it yet, going to go do that.

 

[Byzantine2014]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Yeah, Nier pretty much required you to look into the lore and wikis to know what the hell's going on, kinda like Drakengard. Tldr; for the first Nier:

Spoiler

You kill human souls, as clones of those humans bodies. Remember the village where people were protecting the "monsters"? Yeah, and you don't realize it until Route C or so...

How's it compare to the first Nier by the way? Thinking of getting it eventually

 

[lurker]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

So, been keeping a close eye on this pretty little gem called Dauntless, which is being described in it's most laymens terms as 'Open World Monster Hunter'. Bout time someone made a similar game to the genre, but it being an online world is certainly going to be an interesting spin on it I think. There ain't much details yet, but they're doing beta signups now and seem to have a bit more on the site since the last time I looked.

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Could be interesting to see a western take on the 'beat up monsters to steal their parts, than beat up bigger monsters to do the same' genre

 

[stoper]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

How's it compare to the first Nier by the way? Thinking of getting it eventually

Haven't played the first game. But everyone says it's much better, in terms of gameplay and mechanics.

BTW, my comment on the difficulty was kind of wrong. As I was re-paying the final mission (going for Ending D and E), I noticed that the game reverted to Normal. I played Route B on Hard and looks like it went back to Normal when I started Route C. Changed it back for Hard and it's much better. I still kill most of the enemies with just a few slashes, but they are much faster and use more often their skills.
Now I feel like a cheat Will probably start a new save to beat it all on Hard.

 

[super_slicer]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

So, been keeping a close eye on this pretty little gem called Dauntless, which is being described in it's most laymens terms as 'Open World Monster Hunter'. Bout time someone made a similar game to the genre, but it being an online world is certainly going to be an interesting spin on it I think. There ain't much details yet, but they're doing beta signups now and seem to have a bit more on the site since the last time I looked.

You must be registered to see the links

Could be interesting to see a western take on the 'beat up monsters to steal their parts, than beat up bigger monsters to do the same' genre

IDK, most hunter type games have this difficulty curve 1/3 of the way through the game where killing anything turns into a horrible slog. So you change to the highest damage weapon, spec to put out damage, and use the charge up to do more damage ability. The 3/4 of the way through it spikes again and now finishing a hunt takes 1-2hrs.

And you don't get the parts you need from the monster to upgrade your gear

I'm kind of fed up with that progression. Why am I being punished for not using the heaviest, slowest weapon? Why am I not allowed to increase my power without sinking an entire day grinding the same hunt? Why?

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Well, after packing 90 hours of gameplay into 7 days, I beat Andromeda last night. The game... needs time to grow on you. The first mission and areas you see are, while visually striking, a bit of a slog to get through. As soon as you get your ship and touch down on the first planet, though, things improve dramatically. The same goes for the characters. None of them immediately stick out as amazing, must-have-on-crew companions. It's not until you spent some time with them, maybe even until after you complete their loyalty missions that they come into their own. But then again, this was true for the first Mass Effect game as well. Without three games to develop their personality, much of the original crew seemed kinda flat (with Ashley being a negative exception).
Now that I've finished the game though, I can honestly say that I like THIS crew better than I liked the OT crew by the end of ME1. Liam is a solid bro, Vetra is a big, spiky sister, Jaal is actually ME2-Garrus good, Drack is a krogan grandpa with more depth than he lets on, Cora is... okay, I guess? Peebee can be a bit annoying and stand-off-ish, but I feel that's actually on purpose - she makes it clear that she doesn't want to settle down and that she's constantly one foot out the door already.

Buuuuuut... There's no two ways about this, the face animations are ROUGH. Glassy, mechanically moving eyes, lips not syncing up to words, mouths just doing... weird stuff in general. My tip? Turn on subtitles, they'll draw your eyes away from the faces. Also, shout-out to the voice actors for making these characters likeable in spite of their faces.
Traveling between planets also feels longer than it should and gets annoying fast. especially since most planets have ONE thing to scan AT MOST, so you spend a lot of time just waiting until you're finally able to do something again. It's a transparent - and misguided - attempt at making the game more cinematic. For a game that's supposedly about exploring, it turns you off exploring solar systems pretty thoroughly.

Not to end on a negative note, though, Combat feels great. By the end of it, I practically mowed through hordes of enemies with little trouble. In the beginning it can be challenging, but once you figure out things like combo detonations and which weapon augmentations not to bother with (In my personal opinion? Beams are complete toss, and you can take or leave ricochet) you can absolutely SHRED your opponents. Feels immensely satisfying.

Personally, I'd give the game a 7.5 or 8 out of 10. Its rough spots are by far not enough to turn me off the game. I'll definitely play through this another couple times.

 

[Mamono Assault Force]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Guns of Icarus Alliance released.

Time to rule the skies coop style, with a crew who hasn't a clue what they're doing.

 

[XSI]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Guns of Icarus Alliance released.

Time to rule the skies coop style, with a crew who hasn't a clue what they're doing.

I also got this
I'll probably poke you to play later tonight

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Bioware is rolling out a major patch for Andromeda on Thursday, and it's a doozy. They'll start tackling face animations and add an option to skip traveling animations, as well as fixing an issue where squad banter wouldn't occur - all things that the community has griped about since release.

EDIT: Both links should be spoiler-free if you care about that.

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This post also addresses a bunch of changes they plan to make in the future.

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Fingers crossed, they'll actually clear out a majority of complaints people had from the start.

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[super_slicer]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Even though I'm going through a bit of a 'bored out of my mind' moment, I'm actually pretty happy that I've not picked ME:A up yet. By the time I do it's likely that they'll have the game out of beta testing!


That's the answer to the question by the way. The question being: What didn't bioware do with ME:A they should have?

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Guns of Icarus Alliance released.

Time to rule the skies coop style, with a crew who hasn't a clue what they're doing.

The return of the meatwads....

 

[Stuffie]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Bioware is rolling out a major patch for Andromeda on Thursday, and it's a doozy. They'll start tackling face animations and add an option to skip traveling animations, as well as fixing an issue where squad banter wouldn't occur - all things that the community has griped about since release.

EDIT: Both links should be spoiler-free if you care about that.

You must be registered to see the links

This post also addresses a bunch of changes they plan to make in the future.

You must be registered to see the links

Fingers crossed, they'll actually clear out a majority of complaints people had from the start.

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Downloading the Mass Effect patch now, but others already have it.

Even if you haven't played Andromeda, you've probably seen pictures of that glassy-eyed lady going around. It's pretty much the go-to example for this game's subpar faces. Well, this is how she looks post-patch (with pre-patch for comparison) :

Spoiler

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[XSI]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

Shat out a quick review of a DLC
It's pretty decent, but there isn't much
Vermintide Schluesselschloss

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Spoiler

or Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide, the DLC of Schluesselschloss gives you a single map for the last stand mode, the Schluesselschloss.
Your first task and challenge will be to pronounce it, then after that you will need to motivate 3 people to play it with you as the rewards for this, and indeed the entire last stand mode are at best mediocre and at worst nonexistent.

Luckily for them, they do not need to own it to play with you- As long as the host owns the DLC it is available to anyone who joins them.

The map itself is well made, with just enough supplies unlocking over time and many potentially great places to hold out, all of them flawed just enough to be a challenge. It looks pretty well, has a great view and is not too big or too small.
The price is a bit much for a single map, so I recommend only buying it if you want to support the game and developer. Otherwise, you will probably be able to find better value elsewhere

 

[Caulder]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

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So Digital Foundry got their hands on Scorpio in working condition and they decided to test out a Forza game to test its limits. SUPPOSEDLY it's outputting 4k/60fps, with ~35% GPU overhead.

Now, don't take my word as law, but allegedly, the game was actually running at 50% resolution, meaning it was only actually processing for 1440p resolutions, scaled to fit the 4k screen. Still, for a console to manage 1440p/60 is quite shocking.

Or this could all be smoke and mirrors and it's actually just a repackaged XBone Slim. At this point they haven't even shown the casing publicly.

However, an advancement for consoles means an advancement for the entire industry. If this is as powerful as Microsoft say it is, then Sony will have to rally and make something to either match or outperform it. This will then breed competition anew, and with even more powerful hardware, it will raise the average hardware level across the industry, thus nudging devs to try and make better-looking games overall to take advantage of this increased average, which is good for everyone.

--------------

In other news, riding off the back of TB's talks with Steam, TB ends up potentially fucking G2A, a rather awful and cancerous site that has done more harm than good in the industry, out of their first deal with a AAA publisher. Details and links to many of his own evidence can be found in the description of his video, and it's likely that Gearbox's press release detailing THEIR demands to G2A, can be found

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IT SHOULD BE NOTED, HOWEVER, AND I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH! TB is partnered with a competitor, Chrono.gg, and therefore his views COULD be tinted. But he's mostly just saying shit he's been saying for years, since well before this partnership began. Still a decent tidbit.

 

[super_slicer]

Re: Games Discussion Thread

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So Digital Foundry got their hands on Scorpio in working condition and they decided to test out a Forza game to test its limits. SUPPOSEDLY it's outputting 4k/60fps, with ~35% GPU overhead.

Now, don't take my word as law, but allegedly, the game was actually running at 50% resolution, meaning it was only actually processing for 1440p resolutions, scaled to fit the 4k screen. Still, for a console to manage 1440p/60 is quite shocking.

Or this could all be smoke and mirrors and it's actually just a repackaged XBone Slim. At this point they haven't even shown the casing publicly.

However, an advancement for consoles means an advancement for the entire industry. If this is as powerful as Microsoft say it is, then Sony will have to rally and make something to either match or outperform it. This will then breed competition anew, and with even more powerful hardware, it will raise the average hardware level across the industry, thus nudging devs to try and make better-looking games overall to take advantage of this increased average, which is good for everyone.

Gotta be honest, after they tried to commit suicide with their 'online only' console I didn't think anyone would buy this generation of boxes, much less the next. Though, with nintendo's refusal to release a console that can support serious games (non-gimmicky, non-group based) we need microsoft to stay on the field as the second there is a lack of competition WILL see a generation of online-only consoles.

Pretty sure consoles will be moving toward modular platforms within the next generation or two, why put out a whole new console when you can just offer a connectable module for the same price?